Badger Challenge

On December 16th of 2022 I reached out to my PCP with symptoms that had been plaguing me for months...racing heart and shortness of breath after the smallest of exertions, a general feeling of fatigue. The nurse who triaged me over the phone was firm when he said, "I don't like your symptoms, I think you should go to urgent care and you should go tonight." At urgent care the doctor couldn't find anything immediately obvious but convinced me to run a CBC and get a chest x-ray - he was also firm when he said, "I don't feel comfortable letting you go home until we run more tests, but it's up to you." Choosing more testing in December with a high-deductible health care plan felt counterintuitive with January just a couple short weeks away, but I didn't want to stop what had been put into motion. 30 mins after arriving home I got a phone call from the Urgent Care doc telling me "You are EXTREMELY anemic." He was very firm when he said, "You need to go to the ER tonight." After a blood transfusion, my first colonoscopy, and my first CT scan I left the hospital 3 days later with the worst answers. Stage 4 metastatic colon cancer that had spread to my liver. January 12, 2023 I had a port placed and had my first chemotherapy infusion. I did 12 rounds of chemotherapy over 6 months, had a 5 week break from chemo, then underwent surgery to remove a portion of my colon and the affected areas of my liver. By some miracle I'm still struggling to understand, my pathology results from my surgery told us that I had a complete response to chemotherapy - all the cancer was dead. Since my surgery on July 21st of 2023 I've completely healed and I feel stronger and healthier than I've felt in years. I've had 3 scans since, with my 4th coming up in September, and they've all been clean. We are kicking some major ass over here.  These doctors and nurses saved my life and I'm so hopeful they only have to do it once. <3